I do not claim ownership over the characters. They belong to the creators. I play with the characters without the intention of hurting the original source. I adore it and this is one of my ways of expressing it.

The title comes from a song by Chemical Brothers titled Swoon.

Any comments concerning plot, characterization, grammar mistakes and punctuation are appreciated.

Enjoy!

'Welcome'

Barely I step into the flat and move my things out of the boxes, Nick knocks on the door.

'I have a surprise for you.' He smiles holding out a beer, I take it hesitantly as he winks and walks perkily to the door as the doorbell rings. I see Pat leaving her room jumping on one leg, quickly adjusting her stockings and double-checking for the last time her earrings and outfit in the corridor mirror. I don't know what is going on but I assume that my roommates arranged a little welcome party to celebrate my 'long-awaited arrival'. The first to come is a medium height, blond man with bright eyes. He carries a lot of bottles of beer in his arms and smiles broadly.

'Hi!'

'Come in.' The man steps in and looks straight at me, an unopened beer still in my hand, and nods his head as a greeting.

"Katniss, Peeta. Peeta, Katniss.' Nick pats us on our shoulders and slides into the kitchen. 'Put the bottles on the table, I'll put them in the fridge.'

'How are you?' Peeta asks me.

'Good, thanks. I wasn't expecting a party.'

'Don't worry. There will be only five of us. I guess Nick wants to throw you right away into the mix.' He tilts his head smiling pointing at my beer. 'Do you need help with that?' He is a pleasant looking person and although there is nothing odd about him, somehow he makes me feel uneasy. Too nice people usually tend to arouse my suspicion.

'Ow, no thanks. I was going to open that.' I go to the kitchen and see Pat talking freshly made popcorn out of the microwave.

'Peeta's nice. He is a lovely guy.' I know that Pat likes handsome men so I just smile back – she's a pretty girl herself and after knowing her for a few years I'm used to her taste in men. 'But wait till you see Gale.' She theatrically kisses her index finger and puts it on my bare shoulder making a sizzling sound as she passes me on her way to the living room, a bowl of popcorn in one of her hands and a beer stuck under her arm. I guess that means Gale is 'hot.' I roll my eyes.

'I came here to study, not to hunt men.'

'Why can't you do both at the same time?' She smiles charmingly and leaves. She's unbelievable in that matter – a second year student of business who's changing boyfriends every month. I follow her into the living room when she's already starting to chat warmly with the guys.

'I'll get it.' Pat jumps to her feet as the doorbell rings and she goes for the door while Nick waves me in. I hear an exchange of greetings and in the door appear two people smiling, both of them standing in a self-confident manner. The man has a dark hair and is tall, dressed in a simple hoody and jeans. His face has something in it which might cause people to focus – a look of pleasant seriousness and I think that I understand now what Pat meant before. Alongside him stands equally tall, dark-haired woman wearing a black leather jacket and red skinny jeans. Such an outfit makes her look strict but her blouse adds a definite feminine look to her – a white blouse with collar adorned with bird pattern. She is holding a bottle of red wine in her hand. I don't know if those two are a couple, they've come together so it's possible, but what is definite is that they might constitute a very good looking item. While I look at them curiously, Pat pops up alongside them and does quick introductions. As I suspected, the man's name is Gale while the girl is called Johanna. I continue to chat with Peeta – it turns out that he studies something connected with art and theatre, he's on his second year and bumped into Nick on his first weeks here when the latter tried to set up a uni drama club which works now pretty effectively performing once every two or three months. Gale and Johanna appear to be a part of the club – each introduced to the club by Pat, their mutual friend.

Peeta accompanies me to the kitchen where I go to grab another beer from the fridge. We stumble on Johanna who's shuffling through the drawers clearly looking for something. She doesn't turn back but she can hear us approaching.

'I need a corkscrew.' I try to help her find it but when after a few minutes it turns out that I have no idea where the thing is, she gets visibly irritated.

'Girl you live here!'

'Cut her some slack Mason. She's only arrived today.' I think that her comment is rather uncalled-for but I try to restrain myself from answering in the same manner – it's my first day here so I try to be nice but my patience is not very durable.

'What was your name again, Kat?'

'Katniss.' I stop looking for the corkscrew, puzzled by her demeanor. I exchange looks with Peeta – he's so different than her and I somehow naively assumed that all Nick's friends will resemble him.

'Right. So what do you study Kat, film?'

'Katniss. I'm going to study architecture. And you?'I cross my hands on my chest. I can't help but feeling defensive.

'Genetics. Freaking hell, Nick!' She shouts and after this rather abrupt comment she storms out of the kitchen.

'What's wrong with her?'

'She's all right. She's just bad at making first impression. Usually.' I shrug – I would call that using different words.

'Do you want one?' I reach out for the fridge and Peeta nods. When we are back, guys and Mason giggle on the couch and Pat tries to set up the music on her laptop. The guys seem to enjoy her company and I can hear that they bounce flirty conversation back and forth. We join Pat and spend with her the rest of the evening.

When the alcohol is gone and people left, I lean on the wall near the front door and close my eyes. I'm tired.

'And? What do you think?' Nick smiles while Pat yawns.

'Well, they seem nice...' I trail off but then I risk. 'Maybe apart from Mason. She seems a bit…harsh.'

'That's a rather kind opinion.' Pat chuckles. 'Usually people say worse stuff than that when they meet her.'

'But that's just the first impression. She's great, believe me. Anyway, you'll see.' Nick reassures me and I doubt that it will happen anytime soon.

What the next few weeks show is that I have a lot of classes which are terribly difficult for me to follow so I spend many hours trying to cope with the workload. I think about my student loan and my family's hopes for my great future career every time I'm tired enough to leave uni. I have little time to socialize but those rare occasions prove that Gale and Peeta are charming. Johanna Mason, on the other hand, is as cutting as they come throwing witty comments on people around her who, surprisingly, seem to genuinely like her which remains a mystery to me.